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The Great Coffee Hypothesis of 2000.

Murli has a hypothesis about coffee: He believes that if coffee is made with boiling water the coffee is "burnt" and tastes bitter, not nice. He believes that the flavour is better if the mixture gets close to, but does not reach, 100°C. e.g. for instant coffee:

Black coffee	White coffee
Boil water in kettle, allow kettle to cool for 3 minutes, add coffee to cup, add the water (and possibly sugar), stir, drink.	Boil water in kettle, add coffee and (cool) milk to cup (rather than adding the milk last), add the water (and possibly sugar), stir, drink.

I'm sceptical. After what coffee has been through (roasting the beans, and chemical processes for instant coffee) I doubt that a few °C can make much difference. Still, his hypothesis is plausible. What's more he has convinced others, such as Leigh.

How can we test the grand coffee hypothesis? Design an experiment and carry it out - Murli has agreed to be the subject (if the experiment is safe).

The above was started by a chance conversation in the CSSE tea-room, but Kevin Korb tells me that R.A.Fisher used a similar example to discuss statistical significance, although that related to tea and to whether milk should be added to the cup before or after the tea is poured.

July 2000, L. Allison, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University, Australia 3168